Back in October I said that enough is enough, and that the American judiciary should throw the book at her. Well, guess what — they did, and it looks as though the mother will return the child to the custodial father. Bravo! Read on. Let that be a lesson to you, child abductors, and let that be an incentive for Japan to sign the Hague Convention. Note, however, the update regarding the J-media’s domestic spin after the article. Arudou Debito

Karina Garcia’s mother agreed in court Monday to have the girl home in Fox Point by Christmas.

If she makes it, the 9-year-old would be the first of what advocates say are more than 300 children around the U.S. abducted to Japan in violation of American court orders to be returned through legal intervention.

She also could become a poster child for how to solve a growing problem as international marriages increase in the global economy.

The girl’s father, Moises Garcia, was pleased but cautious in talking to reporters after the hearing, where his ex-wife, Emiko Inoue, pleaded no contest to the felony charge of interfering with child custody by other parent. She was found guilty, but a plea agreement could leave her with only a misdemeanor conviction if Karina returns and Inoue completes other conditions.

Garcia has been working to bring his daughter home since Inoue fled with her to Inoue’s native Japan in February 2008, shortly after Garcia, 39, filed for divorce.

“Divorces are tough for everybody, but when there are cultural differences, it’s very hard to deal with that,” said Garcia, a physician and native of Nicaragua. The couple’s daughter was born in Wisconsin.

He said Inoue, 43, has brainwashed his daughter and alienated her affections for him during the time in Japan, but he’s confident that if the child comes home, she will be able to get the help she needs to deal with the psychological impact of the ordeal.

Japan is the only G7 country not part of an international compact about child abduction. Japan does not assist in returning children to parents with legal custody in other countries, nor does it extradite Japanese charged with crimes related to child abduction or custody interference elsewhere, such as Inoue.

Global Future, a group that advocates for parents whose children have been taken by their other parent to foreign countries, claims Japanese officials in the United States assist in such crimes by granting new passports and visas to Japanese trying to flee with their children.

The group’s founder and secretary, both Californians trying to get children back from Japan, attended Inoue’s hearing in Milwaukee. So did officials from the foreign ministry office of the Japanese consulate in Chicago. They declined to comment on the Global Future claims, or about Inoue’s case.

“We’ve had children returned from South Korea, Iran, Cameroon, Libya and Egypt, but we can’t get any back from a supposedly friendly country, Japan,” said Patrick Braden, CEO and founder of Global Future. His 11-month-old daughter was kidnapped and taken to Japan in 2006.

“This case really does have worldwide implications,” Braden said.

Fuji TV, a Japanese network, also was covering Monday’s hearing.

Inoue was arrested in April when she visited Hawaii to renew her U.S. permanent residency status. She was extradited to Wisconsin and was being held in the Milwaukee County Jail. She appeared in court Monday with her attorney, Bridget Boyle, wearing a dark blue jail suit and glasses.

In response to questions from Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Mel Flanagan, Inoue said she didn’t agree that she had committed all the elements of the crime, but agreed the state could prove her guilty. The felony is punishable by up to 7½ years in prison. If Inoue ultimately were convicted of a misdemeanor, she would likely be sentenced to the time she’s served since her arrest.

District Attorney John Chisholm noted that a felony conviction would probably also have prevented Inoue from remaining in the U.S. He said he thinks Inoue’s prosecution may still deter others, while allowing a chance for Karina to benefit from contact with both parents.

Inoue still has the option to seek visitation rights or changes in custody through family court.

Monday was to have been the continuation of a nonjury trial that began in October, but Boyle told the judge that during nearly four hours of discussion with her client, she agreed to the plea arrangement.

“Hopefully, this is an action in the best interests of the child,” Flanagan said.

Karina is currently living with her maternal grandparents in Japan. Garcia was granted full legal custody in Milwaukee County Circuit Court in 2008. He’s gone further than most people in his situation, said his attorney, James Sakar, and won legal custody from Japanese courts.

The problem, Sakar and Braden explained, is that the centuries-old Japanese civil legal system does not give those courts any enforcement powers.

Sakar said the particulars of Karina’s return to Wisconsin had not yet been worked out.

Braden, who has lobbied dozens of high-ranking officials in Washington, D.C., about the problem, said Monday’s deal was “almost there.” He said advocates for left-behind parents would have preferred a guilty plea and really would like to see U.S. authorities prosecute Japanese diplomatic officials and anyone else who assists noncustodial parents in taking children abroad.

“Some of the Japanese media (like the Mainichi) didn’t bother mentioning her name while I heard Fuji pixled out her face.”

“TBS report says the mother is claiming domestic violence as the reason for the abduction.”

So then there’s this whole other dimension about how the Japanese press is going to encircle and protect their own, as has been mentioned here both above and before, I haven’t found any Japanese media which will call this event a “kidnapping”, despite the ruling by this American court. Yomiuri’s NNN TV has even blocked out her face and refused to mention her name at all as a felon:

Well, for the record, here is a picture of Inoue Eriko in all her glory, courtesy Sentinel Journal. Including handcuffs. Live with it, Japan — child abduction is a crime and those who engage in it are criminals, even if they are Japanese. Trying to reflexively make a victim out of a criminal just makes our media look biased and incongruous.

ENDS

UPDATE TWO: Convicted felon Inoue Emiko returns the child and gets released from the clink. Bravo. And of course, the Japanese media still refuses to use her name in the domestic press. Or even call what she did a crime. Check out the wording below: “arrested on suspicion of taking her 9-year-old daughter to Japan in violation of the father’s parental rights, the father’s lawyer said“. Those pesky lawyers and their allegations; never mind the conviction and sentencing by a judge. She abducts the kid, tries to game the USG by coming back to renew her Green Card, and after all that still has visitation rights in America. All right for some, isn’t it? Try getting this fair a deal in Japan. But again, fairness is not a highly-prized cultural conceit for Team Japanners. Now how about that biased and incongruous reportage. As can be expected, the disingenuous slant is that the Japanese are the victims and sacrificers. The Japanese article claims the daughter “wanted to live in Japan”, but once told of the situation, “went to America to save her mother” according to the very different headline. What a trooper! Especially after being put in this position by her irresponsible mother in the first place!

A Japanese woman has been released from custody in the United States as a result of a plea bargain after being arrested on suspicion of taking her 9-year-old daughter to Japan in violation of the father’s parental rights, the father’s lawyer said Saturday.

Based on the plea bargain, the 43-year-old woman from Hyogo Prefecture returned the daughter to the girl’s 39-year-old Nicaraguan father. The girl had been staying at the home of the woman’s parents in the prefecture.

The woman took the girl to Japan from the United States during divorce proceedings in a U.S. court. The court later granted the divorce and gave custody of the girl to the man.

According to lawyers for the man and the woman, the girl left Japan with her grandmother on Friday and was handed over to the man at a U.S. airport.

The girl said at first that she wanted to live in Japan. However, when she was told about the plea bargain, she understood her return to the United States would “save her mother,” the lawyers said.

The woman will continue to live in the United States and will have visitation rights, according to the lawyers.

The woman was arrested in the United States in April after the father filed a criminal complaint in the case. After realizing she faced a possible long prison sentence if found guilty, she agreed to the plea bargain in November, lawyers said. (Dec. 25, 2011)

50 comments on “UPDATE: Post-divorce J child abductor Inoue Emiko DOES get book thrown at her in Milwaukee court, will return abducted child to custodial NJ father”

Bravo indeed! My heart is breaking for the poor child, though. Imagine the trauma of being bounced over repeatedly from one continent to another because certain bureaucrats can’t get their head straight. Any news on Japan signing the Hague convention, other than ‘they’ll think about it’?

This should be taken seriously as a mental health issue. Of course for the children, detached from, or potentially brainwashed by hurt and possibly even hateful divorcees speaking untruths about the other partner, and the sense of loss and separation that the parent left behind feels.

I still find it interesting how even if convicted of abduction (誘拐 yuukai), the Japanese press will still not call it that.
It makes it difficult to seriously talk about this subject with Japanese speakers in Japanese since the seriousness of the crime does not really get across.

> Then Inoue used the time-honored tactic of abducting the kid anyway and getting a Japanese court to award her the kid instead regardless

So the Japanese courts gave the Japanese mother custody. Check.

> He’s [Garcia] gone further than most people in his situation, said his attorney, James Sakar, and won legal custody from Japanese courts.

So, the Japanese courts gave the non-Japanese father custody. Check… huh? Which one is it?

> Let that be a lesson to you, child abductors, and let that be an incentive for Japan to sign the Hague Convention.

I think that Japan will eventually sign it. Likely sooner than later.
However, call me a pessimist, I think that it will be so watered down with exceptions that it be exploited favorably exploited for Japanese parents and be dis-favorable for for non-Japanese parents.
We’ve already seen early signs that these exceptions are already being developed.
I guess time will tell.

MILWAUKEE — The girl at the heart of an international custody battle, 9-year-old Karina Garcia, is expected to be returned to her father in Wisconsin.

Dr. Moises Garcia, of Fox Point, was awarded custody three years ago but has only seen Karina once since and that was in Japan.
Seven months after she was arrested in Hawaii for abducting her child, Emiko Inoue was in a Milwaukee County courtroom, accused of taking the child she shares with Garcia to Japan and refusing to return.

“She’s a melting pot, three cultures, and that’s what America is. Everybody has a history, has a background, and that’s what she is. She’s not only Japanese. She’s Nicaraguan. She was born in America. And that’s something that I have to protect,” Garcia said.

A Milwaukee County judge accepted Inoue’s plea to a lesser charge as long as Karina is returned to Garcia in the next month.

“She loves her like any mother would love a child, and she wants the best for her daughter, and the problem is that, the question is is she going to spend a couple more weeks in jail, or potentially a decade plus in jail,” defense attorney Bridget Boyle said.

“She has played all sorts of tricks in Japan, and that’s why I say, until she is back on American soil, I won’t believe that this is true,” Garcia said.

Garcia found allies in his three-year battle, such as Patrick Braden of California, the founder of a group that lobbies Capitol Hill to take a tougher stand with Japan in such cases. Braden’s own daughter, Melissa, was taken to Japan by his ex-girlfriend six years ago, and he hasn’t seen her since. He hopes Garcia’s case is a start.

“This is the first time a Japanese citizen who kidnapped an American child from the United States soil in violation of previously established jurisdiction and laws has been held accountable for the criminal act here in a US court,” said Braden, the Global Future founder.

Inoue will remain jailed in Milwaukee until her parents in Japan return Karina to Milwaukee.

Karina will remain Wisconsin, and Garcia will have custody.

If Inoue abides by the agreement, her charge will be reduced to a misdemeanor after three years. She’s pledging to continue to fight for custody.

He said advocates for left-behind parents would have preferred a guilty plea and really would like to see U.S. authorities prosecute Japanese diplomatic officials and anyone else who assists noncustodial parents in taking children abroad.

I guess he and the other advocates don’t get the concept of diplomatic immunity. Now expelling those diplomats would be a legitimate action, but they are literally above the law.

“Some of the Japanese media (like the Mainichi) didn’t bother mentioning her name while I heard Fuji pixled out her face.”

“TBS report says the mother is claiming domestic violence as the reason for the abduction.”

So then there’s this whole other dimension about how the Japanese press is going to encircle and protect their own, as has been mentioned here both above and before. I haven’t found any Japanese media which will call this event a “kidnapping”, despite the ruling by this American court. Yomiuri’s NNN TV has even blocked out her face and refused to mention her name at all as a felon:

Well, for the record, here is a picture of Inoue Eriko in all her glory, courtesy Sentinel Journal. Including handcuffs. Live with it, Japan — child abduction is a crime and those who engage in it are criminals, even if they are Japanese. Trying to reflexively make a victim out of a criminal just makes our media look biased and incongruous.

i wonder why the Japanese newspapers are not showing her face and carrying her name shes a criminal. i thought that they couldn’t show a face only if the person was a minor? This shows me that the newspapers and the GOJ are not serious about reform and they are only trying to protect the image of japan INC.this also reminds me of the documentary the cove in which when it came to japan they blacked out the faces of all the Japanese but in every other country’s there wasn’t any black out of the faces. I wonder when that American guy named chris came back to japan to get his kids and he got illegally arrested, then why was his face and name splashed all over the Japanese newspapers?

One thing I noticed while watching one news station last night was that as soon as the story finished, the next story was about the increasing cases of DV in Japan. It was as if the news program was trying to connect the two stories in the mind of the viewer so as to make it clear what the viewer should think. I’ve also seen this happen before in other news segments where a report about helpful Filipino nurses in Japan is immediately followed by a report on foreign crime. I doubt that any of this is a coincidence.

This is a human tragedy, but, in one sense, I am happy to see it: because it helps prevent future tragedies. The rule of law was that the father had a right to be in the life of his kid. These Japanese who come and take the kid away are really in the wrong.

The sweet irony of Emiko Inoue’s capture was that she went back to America for the Green Card renewal. So typical of many Japanese who disrespect us, our laws and our country is here to be used, but not to be honored.

Interesting to read the various reactions in the Japanese blogosphere on this case. For instance, if you do a search on “国際離婚” you can find a number of blogs run by a vociferous anti-Hague faction of Japanese women who have been party to such failed “international marriages,” and unsurprisingly, these blogs have been unified in their support of Ms. Inoue.

Now while that doesn’t come as much of a surprise, what’s interesting to see are the mixed reactions coming from the peanut gallery over at 2-channel. A good majority of the posters in these threads are totally unsympathetic for this lady with some saying that Japan should just “disown” such an idiot who “married out,” and certain posters even calling a spade a spade by using the word “拉致” – in the context of “her actions are making Japan look as bad as a certain neighboring despotic 拉致国家.” Although I wouldn’t quite attribute this to some sudden epiphany as it sounds more like a lot of these right wing nutjobs have a personal axe to grind with perceived rampant feminaziism in Japan which trumps gaiatsu as the greater evil in this rare instance.

@ Anon, Debito. The one (recent) case of a male gaijin winning custody of the child was that one I posted a week or two ago, about the Spanish Doctor who was asked to come back and care for their abducted son by the J family after the doddering father in law accidentally burnt the child. I think I posted it in “In Appropriate” because it reminded me of that novel`s story; you couldn`t make it up.

The J family actually admitted libelling the foreign dad. Wonders never cease!!

it seems like the media have a big bias double standard over here just to protect the image of japan inc. but when the shoe is on the other foot like that Doctor named Chris that came back to japan get his kids his face and name were all over the TV and newspapers etc.so why haven’t they showed her face and name? why are they trying to hide the truth? Debito I think it would serve us all better if you would continue to show her face and name as a reminder of all the bias and double standards that exist over here.I have her picture in handcuffs as the background wallpaper picture on my iPod as justice served

@ Masada, what motivates these 2 channers is purely Freudian; sexual jealousy. As this is their main motivator, saying “The idiot married out” is just another side of the same coin as anti gaiatsu. Its the same old “they are stealing our women” inferiority complex. Definitely a personal axe, or more likely, personal self esteem issues!

I think its positive that some people on 2 chan however ARE noticing the striking similarity between this “Rachi mondai” and the other “Rachi mondai”- these people are not in denial. Slight progress has been made.

When it comes to the poor guy in question, his daughter, who has probably already been conditioned to hate him, has even more reason to hate him now that she is being “forcibly” returned so her mother can avoid jail time. Honestly, can you imagine what is going on over there right now? Can you imagine what the grandparents are telling her? “Your father had your mother arrested! If you don’t go back to him, leave us, leave your mother, and leave all your friends, she will spend the next 10 years in jail!”. Yeah, she is really going to love her father for this (PLEASE note that I am not in any way blaming Mr. Garcia for this. I am only stating what the likely outcome is.)

As for the whole “Japanese government with regards to international child abduction” issue, nothing has changed. The Japanese government did absolutely nothing to solve this case. The only reason that anything happened at all is because the mother was stupid enough to visit Hawaii. As long as other mothers aren’t stupid enough to visit the US, nothing will change for them. They will be allowed to continue, exactly as they always have been.

Furthermore, there is probably going to be even less sympathy in Japan, for the non-Japanese parents in these cases, after the Japanese press finish having a field day with the whole “Poor abused Japanese mother forced into returning child to avoid 10 years in barbaric foreign jail” angle.

Seriously, what good will come from this? I don’t see it.

— For one thing, the US has finally set a positive precedent by fully enforcing one of its arrest warrants, to the point of saying the abducted child must be returned. That will possibly create a deterrent effect against other abductors, who’d otherwise believe (with hitherto decent grounds) that the rule of law will not be enforced even if they do abduct.

“Garcia’s been awarded full custody, but his legal battle, with volumes of court documents and a cost of $350,000, has taught him not to get too optimistic.

In fact, Karina’s grandparents told the Fuji News Network in Japan on Tuesday:

“We would like to respect the wishes of our granddaughter. Our granddaughter does not want to go to the United States.”

Garcia said he’s not surprised. He’s only been able to spend about two hours with her in the past three years.

“Karina has been totally brainwashed, almost brainwashed, because she hasn’t been allowed any contact with me. She’s been told their side of the story and hasn’t had a chance to hear my side,” Garcia said.”

I feel so bad for this guy. He is literally in a no win situation.

— I feel sorry for both the daughter and the father. But what was the father do to do? Nothing? No, he did something about it, and now the kidnapping is finally being rectified. Let’s hope Karina comes back to America safely. Shame on the mother for putting everyone in this position.

Good news but unfortunately the abducter will have to set foot on American soil to get arrested if a warrant exists. If she hadn`t have returned to renew her green card would she have remained protected? I hope the US puts their foot down ever harder in the coming months so Japan understands that what they condone as acceptable is in fact unacceptable.

What does that mean? If he won rights in Japan why wouldn’t the courts there enforce it?

Courts issue rulings. They don’t have armies of soldiers they can order to enforce their rulings. That means that if the police choose not to enforce a court judgment, it just sits there, looking nice but not having any real-world effect.

>Good news but unfortunately the abducter will have to set foot on American soil to get arrested if a warrant exists.

True. That’s why I’m saying many times the US has so many things to work on to patch the things up in the legal loopholes that can’t be covered by the US Constitutions. The cartels of mind–utilitarian diplomats and Japanese Embassy in the US–give potential abductors free pass by issuing an unauthorized passport and fake document. It’s still unknown how the news will influence the ally of Team Japan (US State Department) and its oily subsidiaries (the US Consul) in Japan.

Anyway, let’s see what happens next. I have my fingers crossed for Karina’s safe return to her dad in Wisconsin.

the criminal now is in jail and she will remain in jail until the child that was stolen is returned. And the judgement stated that she has 30 days to have the kid returned under the plea deal so shes lucky that she at least got to plea deal something that NJ in japan don’t have this right.The judge in this case was very smart because under the terms of her plea deal says that she will remain in jail until the child is returned and she only has a 30 day time limit or the plea deal is off the table and then shes facing a 12 years behind bars and a felony.So you can bank on this kid being returned within 30 days.

“I feel sorry for both the daughter and the father. But what was the father do to do? Nothing? No, he did something about it, and now the kidnapping is finally being rectified.”

Again, please don’t misunderstand me. I am definitely on the father’s side here. I just find it heartbreaking how, even though he has supposedly “won”, I don’t think he is actually going to “win” at all.

Due to the time that the inaction of the Japanese government afforded the mother and the grandparents to poison the child’s opinion of her father, it is most likely going to be impossible for him to get her to love him normally. He is most likely going to have to wait until she is much older, and then hopefully she will begin to understand what happened.

Out of curiosity, are there many cases involving NJ parents removing their children from Japan as divorce proceedings begin (or for other reasons as well)?

And if so, what kind of actions has Japan historically taken to try and obtain the children involved? Does Japan’s lack of playing ball with the rest of the world ever come back to haunt her when the shoe is on the other foot?

@Debito
‘ So essentially the damage was done regardless of the court case.’

You’re probably right, but someone’s got to be the first, to raise awareness and create the political will. Hat’s off to the guy for going the distance to get his daughter back (even if she may have been taught to detest him).
Hopefully she will be able to go to the US, re-acquaint herself with her father, and in time see that she was manipulated by her Japanese relatives. Maybe (I won’t hold out too much hope) one day in the future, when she has seen this from her Fathers point of view, she will let a Japanese news crew interview her, and she can explain how she was denied a Father by her Japanese relatives.
In the future, as an adult, I hope that she will tell Japan that they are in the wrong on this issue (of course, if she does, the J-news will claim she has been brainwashed. I got 100 bucks on it, any takers?).

Kaori is a Japanese national married to a man with dual New Zealand and British citizenship. They have a 1-year-old child, and had been living in London for some time when her husband recently told her he had been offered a job in Tokyo and wanted to move there together. She agreed, quit her full-time job and flew to Japan with her husband and child.

Then she presumptuously decided to have her cake and eat it too, coming back to Hawaii last April to renew her Green Card, whereupon the authorities honored the arrest warrant against her…
I’ll wager anything that she believes that once the Japanese court vacated the US court’s verdict in her favour, the Japanese court’s ruling was binding on the US as well. Hence her belief that she could return to Hawaii with impunity.

“That means that if the police choose not to enforce a court judgment, it just sits there”

I know this is the way things work in Japan for family law, but is this legal? Is there anyway one could make an official complain about the police for not enforcing a court decision? Does this mean that family court decisions are not legally enforceable?

I’ve only spoken with a couple of Japanese people about the issue of Japan signing the Hague, and I’ve encountered the attitude that these women must be fleeing from domestic violence, and that foreign courts are going to be biased in awarding custody to their citizen rather than the Japanese spouse regardless of this alleged abuse.

What can one say to people who express this view?

— How would those proponents feel if they were told that NJ should abduct their children out of Japan because they believed that their Japanese spouses have violent tendencies, and that Japanese courts are biased against NJ?

I am unsure about the relevance of that case to the Hague Convention.
According to the article, the family lived in London with a one year old child.
They moved to Japan. Within a mater of days, the husband took the child with him to New Zealand.
The Hague Convention is about “habitual residence”.
While the one-year old child may not have habitually resided in New Zealand, he has also certainly not habitually resided in Japan either.
The Hague Convention might be usable to bring the child back to London, but neither of the parents currently live there.

Nice link! This is big news! Japan is always seeking international recognition (world’s number 1 fastest computer etc), and now Japanese are the biggest group by nationality on the FBI’s Most Wanted Parental Kidnappers List! Way to go Team Japan!

Actually years ago I met up with an Aussie running off with his four-year-old son to Sidney years back. This was on a Sunday and I just happen to bump into them while in a McDonalds in Shinjuku. The boy had few toys and the father a shoulder bag. He told they were on their way to the airport.

It was weird because at first I didn`t get it. You mean you`re leaving right now?

No luggage.

No nothing.

That`s right. He didn`t trust what would happen in Japan should he and his wife split. So he told the wife he was taking the boy to the park and now they were on their way to Narita.

Long story short he left Japan for three years but his wife ended up joining him. They got back together and are living in Tokyo once again.

I know of one case where a Non-Japanese father took his son to NZ to live permanently. Dont know if there are any extradition treaties going the other way but I doubt he will bring the boy back to Japan again!

This partial quote referring to Emiko Inoue comes from a Japan Times article “Mom to Drop Kobe Appeal in U.S. Custody Battle” dated November 26, 2011 (link below)

“The 43-year-old woman, whose name has not been disclosed,…”

I don’t get it. As of Nov. 26 her name had been disclosed by countless media sources. She has been charged with a felony, is guilty of the crime, and the case is public record. Her name HAS been disclosed. Shame on you, Japan Times…

— Yes, lazy reporting, as this is an article from the Kyodo wires (probably Japanese originals) that the JT is citing (to save money), and they could have done their own article “compiled from wire reports” and mentioned names. Unless, of course, there is some rule (knowing Japan, there probably is) where in criminal cases, unless the domestic media mentions names, the foreign-language media based in Japan cannot do so either. But agreed, her name is already clearly part of the international public record by now and should be mentioned.

UPDATE: A Japan Today article on this issue (from the AP) mentions names, and they fall under the same status as the Japan Times. So I guess the JT just got lazy and decided to just copy paste the Kyodo wire report with its inherent bias.

American father wins custody of daughter taken to Japan
CRIME NOV. 23, 2011 – 04:30PM JST MILWAUKEE —
A U.S. father has won an international custody case that could bring his 9-year-old daughter home from Japan in the next few weeks.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel newspaper reported Tuesday that the girl’s mother, Emiko Inoue, pleaded no contest to interfering with child custody in Milwaukee County Circuit Court Monday and agreed to return Karina Garcia to Wisconsin.

The newspaper said that Japan isn’t part of an international compact on child abduction, so the case could set a precedent.

If she makes it, Karina would be the first of what advocates say are more than 300 children around the U.S. abducted to Japan in violation of American court orders to be returned through legal intervention.

The mother fled to her native Japan with the girl in 2008, shortly after her husband, Moises Garcia, filed for divorce. The Journal Sentinel said U.S.-born Karina lives with her maternal grandparents in Japan.

Inoue was arrested in April when she visited Hawaii to renew her U.S. permanent residency status. She was extradited to Wisconsin and was being held in the Milwaukee County Jail, the Journal Sentinel said.

“Divorces are tough for everybody, but when there are cultural differences, it’s very hard to deal with that,” said Garcia, a physician and native of Nicaragua. The couple’s daughter was born in Wisconsin.

He told the paper that Inoue, 43, has brainwashed his daughter and alienated her affections for him during the time in Japan, but he’s confident that if the child comes home, she will be able to get the help she needs to deal with the psychological impact of the ordeal.

Japan is the only G7 country not part of an international compact about child abduction. Japan does not assist in returning children to parents with legal custody in other countries, nor does it extradite Japanese charged with crimes related to child abduction or custody interference elsewhere, such as Inoue.

Global Future, a group that advocates for parents whose children have been taken by their other parent to foreign countries, claims Japanese officials in the United States assist in such crimes by granting new passports and visas to Japanese trying to flee with their children, the Journal Sentinel reported.
ENDS

The Embassy Newsletter says that the Director of the Office of Children’s Issues is in Japan to meet with officals about the topic on this thread. Looks like what you and others have been doing is making progress towards a solution to the hide and grab mentality of many Japanese. Good work.

— Could we have the text of the newsletter with title and date included? Thanks.

Fox Point Dad Gets Daughter Back From Japan In Time For Christmas
Karina Garcia Arrived In United States Friday Morning
POSTED: 3:42 pm CST December 23, 2011
UPDATED: 5:37 pm CST December 23, 2011

MILWAUKEE — A 9-year-old girl is back with her father in Milwaukee following an international custody battle between an American parent and the Japanese government. It was a battle that many other American parents have never won.

Karina Garcia arrived from Japan Friday morning after her Fox Point father fought for nearly four years to regain custody. She was taken four years ago by her mother and held in Japan.

Karina’s dad talked to 12 News as they were on their way home from the Chicago airport heading to Fox Point.

“She’s nervous in the beginning. She told me she was overwhelmed from the, so many people around. But now, with me and my sister, she is actually sleeping. So she’s doing OK,” Dr. Moises Garcia said.

A Milwaukee judge ruled in November that Garcia’s Japanese ex-wife, Emiko Inoue, would remain jailed until their daughter was returned to Wisconsin. On Friday, Inoue was set free from a Milwaukee jail.

“For me, it’s going to be just about building the relationship again, and trying to be her friend and her dad at the same time,” Moises Garcia said. “It’s important that she has choices, and it’s important that she start building trust.

And I told her that she’s going to see her parents, her grandparents and her mom in the future, hopefully very soon.”

Moises Garcia called it a miracle having his little girl home for Christmas, and he’s hoping the Japanese government realizes all children deserve two parents.

“Hopefully, children that still have no access to their parents over there will have them. And I think that will be my New Year’s resolution for now, but this is a big gift from God,” he said.

Karina’s dad said she is already asking about when school starts and wants to play with neighborhood friends.

Karina’s mother has agreed to stay in the United States for three years as part of the court decision.

UPDATE TWO: Convicted felon Inoue Emiko returns the child and gets released from the clink. Bravo. And of course, the Japanese media still refuses to use her name in the domestic press. Or even call what she did a crime. Check out the wording below: “arrested on suspicion of taking her 9-year-old daughter to Japan in violation of the father’s parental rights, the father’s lawyer said“. Those pesky lawyers and their allegations; never mind the conviction and sentencing by a judge. She abducts the kid, tries to game the USG by coming back to renew her Green Card, and after all that still has visitation rights in America. All right for some, isn’t it? Try getting this fair a deal in Japan. But again, fairness is not a highly-prized cultural conceit for Team Japanners. Especially when you consider the bias in reporting. The Japanese article claims the daughter “wanted to live in Japan”, but once told of the situation, “went to America to save her mother” according to the very different headline. What a trooper! Especially after being put in this position by her irresponsible mother in the first place!

A Japanese woman has been released from custody in the United States as a result of a plea bargain after being arrested on suspicion of taking her 9-year-old daughter to Japan in violation of the father’s parental rights, the father’s lawyer said Saturday.

Based on the plea bargain, the 43-year-old woman from Hyogo Prefecture returned the daughter to the girl’s 39-year-old Nicaraguan father. The girl had been staying at the home of the woman’s parents in the prefecture.

The woman took the girl to Japan from the United States during divorce proceedings in a U.S. court. The court later granted the divorce and gave custody of the girl to the man.

According to lawyers for the man and the woman, the girl left Japan with her grandmother on Friday and was handed over to the man at a U.S. airport.

The girl said at first that she wanted to live in Japan. However, when she was told about the plea bargain, she understood her return to the United States would “save her mother,” the lawyers said.

The woman will continue to live in the United States and will have visitation rights, according to the lawyers.

The woman was arrested in the United States in April after the father filed a criminal complaint in the case. After realizing she faced a possible long prison sentence if found guilty, she agreed to the plea bargain in November, lawyers said. (Dec. 25, 2011)

>The woman was arrested in the United States in April after the father filed a criminal complaint in the case. After realizing she faced a possible long prison sentence if found guilty, she agreed to the plea bargain in November, lawyers said.

So, the State Court did indeed grant this estranged mother the right to stay, temporarily, in the US and meet with her daughter on several occasions per year, anyway. Hope the US authorities are astute enough to beef up the security to discourage this mother from another attempted kidnapping in the future.

Maybe, it’s daughter’s genuine feeling to “save her mother” from disgrace–which I think it is great. But, it’s all up to utmost repentance for the mother–not the newspaper, woman’s lawyers, or any authoritative agents belonging to the Team-J. Neither of those is able to wash her sin away, and shall not (!) do so for the sake of family bonding that was once broken.

THIS Christmas Moises Garcia, a Nicaraguan living in America, got the gift he had spent almost four years and $350,000 fighting for: the return of his nine-year-old daughter. In 2008 Karina was whisked away to Japan by her Japanese mother. He set about fighting in the Japanese courts for the right to see her. During that period, he met her only three times. Their longest meeting lasted for only two hours.

Then he had a stroke of luck. Last April Karina’s mother travelled to Hawaii to renew her green card. She was arrested at the airport and charged with violating Karina’s custody agreement. As part of a plea bargain, the mother relinquished Karina, who became the first child seized by a Japanese parent to be returned to America via the courts. (Feel sorry for Karina, in the middle of this tug-of-love.)

Because of such cases, America is one of many countries that has pressed Japan to honour its promise to join the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. Japan proposes to do so this year. The convention sets rules for the prompt return to their normal country of residence of children under 16 who have been abducted by one of their parents. The State Department says Japan has about 100 such cases involving children of Americans. There are scores from other countries, too.

But for one category of parents—those living in Japan without access to their children—the Hague convention changes nothing. When parents separate, Japan’s legal system does not recognise the joint custody of children common in other jurisdictions. Instead, children are put into the custody of a single parent after divorce. The family courts usually grant custody to the parent, most often the mother, who at that particular moment is in possession of the child—even if the parent has abducted him. The courts rarely enforce the stingy visitation rights of the “left-behind” parent. And so many fathers, in particular, vanish altogether from their children’s lives. Every year as many as 150,000 divorced parents in Japan lose contact with their children, according to estimates gleaned from official data. Some do so of their own accord, but most have no say in the matter.

One such father, an ex-deputy mayor, describes the system as a conjugal version of the prisoner’s dilemma. He says that when a marriage starts to break down, the unspoken question is: who will seize the child first, the mum or the dad? In his case, she did. For two years he has had no contact with his four-year-old daughter—even his presents are returned unopened—and all with the blessing of the family court. When he reminded the judge that the civil code had been changed to encourage visitation rights, the judge silenced him.

Satsuki Eda, who as justice minister last year pushed through the change in the civil code, says he hopes it will lead to more generous visitation rights. It may, he also hopes, one day lead to a serious consideration of joint custody. But, he cautions, judges are conservative, finding it “very difficult to change their minds”. And so, in a cruel twist, a country that has long sought redress for the past abduction of a few dozen citizens by the North Korean state tacitly supports vast numbers of abductions each year at home. “Many people in my situation commit suicide,” the estranged father says. “I can understand the feeling.”
ENDS